


The Greatest Gift

by aumontalc



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-26 04:12:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9861956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aumontalc/pseuds/aumontalc
Summary: Jackson wakes up and everything is strange.





	

 

 

Jackson shut off his alarm and slowly rolled out of the bunk. One hour would never be long enough for a decent nap. He felt like he could sleep for three lifetimes and still wouldn’t be able to get enough rest. Harriet was doing better about sleeping through the night, but work and a baby made for an exhausting life.

 

Thinking of his daughter, he smiled. She certainly was a handful, but she was the apple of his eye. He and April might have done a lot of things wrong but their baby girl was their biggest right. After surgery, he’d go pick her up and they’d have some daddy-daughter time.

 

Until then he’d have to spend the next few hours in surgery with her mother. He gritted his teeth. He wasn’t very pleased with April at the moment. He couldn’t believe what she’d done. She was a turncoat for taking that job. Where was her loyalty to Webber? He suspected it was nonexistent. These past few days he could barely stand to talk to her. If it weren’t for Harriet, he would have asked her to move out but the wellbeing of his daughter would always trump hospital politics. Sure, his career was important but there was one person who would always take precedence, Harriet. At this young of an age, she needed a routine and a stable home life. Being carted to and fro from place to place was not ideal. He could swallow his distaste of April’s choices for the betterment of the number one person in his life.

 

Stepping out of the on-call room, he found April standing next to the door waiting for him. Internally, he groaned. This was gonna be a LONG surgery.

 

“So Jackson I was thinking we could go over some details of the surgery…”

 

“Yeah, sure,” Jackson replied, trying to control the disdain in his voice as he walked along side her.

 

He did a sudden double take when he noticed the length of her hair. She’d chopped it off when she’d gone to Jordan and it had been slowly growing back. This morning it was a couple inches past her shoulders, but now her hair looked noticeably longer.

 

“Have you done something with your hair?”

 

April looked at him as if he’d grown a third head. “No, my hair has been this way for a few years now. Ever since I got pregnant with Samuel.”

 

Jackson inwardly winced at the mention of Samuel’s name. What did he care about April’s hair style anyway? There were more important things on which to focus.

 

April showed him her plans for the surgery on her iPad. Jackson made a few suggestions on the plan of attack. In the middle of one of his suggestions, April’s phone beeped. She looked down at the text and quickly typed a response.

 

“Something you need to take care of, chief?” he couldn’t help adding sarcastically.

 

April flinched clearly hurt by the remark. “No, just finalizing dinner plans.”

 

Jackson rolled his eyes. It was amazing she could still find time to date. He figured she was too busy being a traitor and stealing jobs from her friends to have any time to meet new people.

 

“Jackson, I get that you’re upset that I took this job. I know things have been weird between us for the last few years but I always thought you’d still be my friend. People haven’t always been so happy to have the Avery Foundation involved with this hospital. If you don’t recall, one of those people was Webber. But I’ve always stuck up for you because you’re my friend. I guess you don’t think I deserve the same decency. I’m gonna go do some paperwork. I’ll see you in half an hour for our surgery,” April said before storming off.

 

Friend? Why we was she so stuck on friendship all of a sudden? They were amicable but he wouldn’t say they were friends not after the divorce. 

 

He felt a pang of guilt because deep down he knew what she said was true. Even when she hadn’t agreed with him she’d always had his back. Maybe he shouldn’t be so hard on her. After all, the likelihood that this was his mother’s doing was 99.9%. He’d back off. She was already getting enough hate from the rest of her coworkers. She didn’t need it from the father of her child too.

 

* * *

 

 

Thirty minutes later, Jackson turned on the faucet next to April. “I’m sorry,” he said.

 

“It’s OK,” she said. “I know how me taking this job looks. It doesn’t mean that I don’t support Webber though. I do, but the position couldn’t go unfilled. It’s not like I’m taking it over permanently. Grey will be reinstated once her suspension is over. I don’t get why everyone’s so mad when I’m taking over her position for like two weeks. It’s like when a teacher goes on maternity leave. You can’t leave the kids alone in the classroom. You have to get a substitute teacher. I’m the substitute teacher.”

 

When she put it that way, his anger about the situation seemed a little silly. She wasn’t stealing Grey’s job. She was filling in. 

 

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’ve overreacted a bit,” he said. “For our sanity how about we just don’t talk about it anymore?”

 

April smiled, “Deal.”

 

* * *

 

 

As they closed up the patient Jackson asked, “So what are those dinner plans you’ve got going tonight?”

 

April laughed, “Oh, they’re real exciting. We’re debating whether we should get pizza from Domino’s or Pizza Hut. I prefer home cooked meals, but after this week delivery is the way to go, you know? What’s up with you? You and Stephanie have any big plans?”

 

Stephanie? Where had that come from? They hadn’t been together since he’d stood up at the wedding. April was acting really odd today.

 

“No,” he replied intentionally ignoring the remark about Stephanie. “I’m probably just gonna go home and watch some basketball.” It wasn’t like he could do anything anyway since he had babysitting duty while April was on her date.

 

They finished with the patient and headed to the next room to wash up. “You should get out and enjoy life more, Jackson. Once you get married, you’ll be chained to work and home. Believe me. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

 

Jackson was officially weirded out by April now. Why was she acting like this? Saying these things? Had she completely forgotten that they had once been married? Was she trying to insult him in some way? She finished drying her hands before he could think of a reply.

 

“Bye, Jackson, see you tomorrow!”

 

“Uh…bye,” Jackson replied as he watched April slip out the door.

 

* * *

 

 

As Jackson walked in to the daycare, he greeted Trish, the worker in charge of infants. She returned his smile in a dazed kind of way. “I’m here to pick up my daughter,” he told her.

 

“Um….I’m sorry. You have a child here?”

 

“Yeah, Trish. My daughter. She’s six months old. She was wearing a pink onesie with an elephant on it.” 

 

“And your name is?”

 

Jackson started to feel a bit of panic. What was happening here?

 

“Dr. Jackson Avery. Trish, this isn’t funny. I don’t know who put you up to this…”

 

“I’m sorry Dr. Avery. I’m not trying to upset you, but you’ve never been in here before. You may have a daughter, but she doesn’t go to this daycare.”

 

“What?” Jackson asked in full panic now.

 

Rushing past the worker, he went to check all the cribs in hopes that his child would be sleeping safe and sound in one of them.

 

“Sir, I’m going to have to call security,” Trish said, her attempt at an authoritarian voice was wobbly with fear.

 

This was madness. He didn’t know what was happening, but everything had felt off today. And now this? Looking up, he saw April approaching. He’d never been so relieved to see someone in his life.

 

“Hi, Trish. I’m here to pick up Harriet.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
